Everyone should have the value of oneself and know to fight for his/her happiness. Meet Kirsty Gordon, a trailblazer in the travel industry who has fought not just for herself but for the community. Her journey began with a passion for travel and tourism, leading her to a distinguished career that has seen her shape and redefine the landscape of travel management.
Driven by this passion, Kirsty launched Anywhere in Africa Safaris on a low-key basis, catering to local and inbound travel to Africa. Today, Anywhere in Africa Safaris stands as a testament to Kirsty’s dedication to excellence, client satisfaction, and industry innovation.
Kirsty Gordon’s story is one of resilience, passion, and a relentless pursuit of excellence in the travel industry. As she continues to lead the company, her vision remains clear – to offer unparalleled travel experiences and make a lasting difference in the world of travel.
To know more about her values we at CIO Business World conducted interview with Kirsty. Below are the highlights of the interview:
Brief our audience about your journey as a business leader until your current position at your company.
When I left school I went to study travel and tourism and then was offered a job with a travel agency called Wynberg travel in Cape Town in their corporate division. About a year later there was an opening in their incentive division. I was very keen on this position and was lucky enough to be offered this opportunity working with an amazing lady called Sally O’Molony, who in those years (32 odd years ago) was one of the travel icons in the industry. She taught me so much about attention to detail, logistics and being creative in planning incentive travel.
I was then head-huntered by a new company called Chameleon Indabas which was part of the Felix Unite Tourism group working in their incentive division creating amazing events for corporate companies and large travel groups. it was then time for me to branch out and start my own company which was called WebTour Africa focusing on local and inbound travel to Africa, and another overland ‘’glamp camping’’ company called Heading South Safaris. Then I took a break, in 2006 as I had an opportunity to ride horses professionally in the UK and try and qualify to compete for South African in 3-day evening at Beijing Olympics. Sadly I missed this by three qualifications as I had a fall and slipped disks in my lower back and I couldn’t catch up the qualifications in time.
Then returned to South Africa in 2008, note quite sure if wanted to stay in the travel industry or branch out into another direction. I asked myself the question when I was at this cross road – why do want to stay in travel – my answer – I love Africa, I love people and I love travel. I then started Anywhere in Africa safaris on a low key basis as I have also been asked to run another travel company (Timeless Africa Safaris) which focused more on the (Young President Organization – YPO) market.
I was there for 5 years building up this company for FIT Travel (fully inclusive tours) for individual people and small groups but then also got involved with running big YPO groups into South Africa.
In 2015 I decided that it was time to re-invent Anywhere in Africa Safaris which has been on the back burner for 5 years. It took me 6 months to get the structure of the company set up and working with the right systems so that I could comfortably offer my services to my network of clients which I had built up over the past 32 years. What an amazing journey this has been and I am super proud of where Anywhere in Africa Safari is situated in the travel industry today.
What challenges have you had to overcome to reach where you are today?
- It was super scary to step away from a company where I was happily settled and take the risk to re-start Anywhere in Africa Safaris.
- Keeping myself focused and positive in the startup and not allowing myself to doubt my ability and experience in getting Anywhere in Africa Safaris up and running.
- Trusting my own decisions
- Something I firmly believe in and kept focusing on – it isn’t the problems that arise but how we solve the problems that make the impact.
Tell us something more about your company and its mission and vision.
- I am a sole owner but have an incredible team of people working for me and in the background behind the scenes.
- Having worked for bigger companies over the years, I found that clients get passed from consultant to consultant and this was something I wanted to do differently in my business.
- Clients will always be handled by myself directly, any enquiries, planning, proposals will be presented to the clients by myself. This builds incredible confidence with my clients as they know the trip is being planning as if ‘’my family’’ was traveling.
- The client is the most important person – they are the one that is paying money to have a dream / bucket list trip so hence myself and my team are very focused on this at all times.
- We work on quality over quantity bookings so are not going to grow into a massive company where the focus on the clients get lost just to make turnover.
- My clients will never feel like they are in a sausage machine.
- We work on bespoke, high end travelers who want to experience Africa and make a difference in their travel and come away with wanting to be an ambassador to Africa.
- It is the journey not only the destination that we focus on when creating and planning an itinerary.
- Our focus in creating is based on clients’ interests, wish list, passions, bucket list dreams and budget.
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run, and what are your future goals for your company?
Anywhere in Africa Safaris has established itself as high end and tailored travel to ‘’anywhere in Africa.’
- I want to keep the company tight and small so that our clients are assisted to perfection and note passed from consultant to consultant.
- Keeping the 60/40 rule in mind
- We will keep focusing on our repeat and referral business
- But now branching out more into the social media to encourage more reach but focusing on quality leads over quantity leads
- My goal is when a clients want to travel they must think call Kirsty at Anywhere in Africa Safaris.
Describe in detail the values and the work culture that drives your organization.
- Passion
- Attention to detail
- Client focus and service
- 24/7 available when clients are traveling
- Caring for our clients and making their dreams a reality
- Crafting and creating incredible Itineraries
- Listening to clients’ needs before we jump in with a proposal
- Doing our best to work within client’s budgets and expectations
Looking ahead, what are your main goals and aspirations for your company’s future?
- This is the year of consolidation and house-keeping to make sure that our systems and logistics on the business are 100%
- Focusing on our social media reach
- Focusing on offering clients new and different destinations in Africa not the same run of the mill destinations that many other travel companies focus on.
What inspired the vision that drives your company’s strategies and innovations?
Working for other companies and seeing what I didn’t want – which was that the clients are not the top priority even though they are spending a large amount of money to travel.
What advice do you have for aspiring CEO?
- Choose your team well – be it In-house staff or consulting staff
- Choose people with passion and in this industry it is about the love of your job not just chasing the money.
- Don’t be pressured by other people or business trust yourself and your instincts.
